I wasn't around in the 70s so I have no first-hand knowledge of the subject, but my understanding is that this country use to be farking filthy back in the day. Like trash everywhere. Can someone from that time compare and contrast this for me?

EPA. Textbook example of the 'When you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all' principle. EPA gets a lot of hate, but we've got it really, really good because of their efforts. Yes, it complicates things. Yes, its absolutely worth the hassle.

China is just going through the same growing pains America went through with it's industrial revolution. It was not that long ago our lakes and rivers looked like that...they will check themselves, right themselves as we did.

FloydA:Weaver95: I think i'm starting to like the EPA a lot more than I did before reading that article...

[i105.photobucket.com image 300x259]

The EPA is a large part of the reason why the Cuyahoga River does't catch fire any more.

This is what the Cuyahoga looked like in the 1960s:[i105.photobucket.com image 453x353]

This is what the Cuyahoga River looks like today:[i105.photobucket.com image 504x350]

Every time a libertarian friend of mine complains that anti-pollution regs are too strict, I think of pictures like that. The EPA exists to prevent the Tragedy of the Commons, and it's done a very good job.